NORTH DAKOTA STATE

And, of course, the administrations of the colleges moving their sports programs upward realize that alumni giving to academic programs increases with sports visibility.

Years and years ago, Catholic U in DC de-emphasized their sports programs thinking they would shift athletic donations to academic donations. But what happened was that not only athletic donations dropped, so did academic donations. Catholic U administrators learned a hard lesson: Despite the "intellectuals'" insistence and disdain for college sports, college sports fans are also the largest group of academic donors.

Oklahoma State's largest academic donor? its T. Boone Pickens....whose athletic and academic donations have spurred unparalled athletic and academic giving within the OSU family not witnessed before.

Well, North Dakota State about to upset Oklahoma. I'd say going DI has helped.